The farm went 3-1 overall, while Quad Cities goes into the All-Star Break. Shelby Miller made his 4th Texas League start, so check out the details below!
- Adron Chambers led off and hit 3-5
- Nick Stavinoha had a solo-HR and was 2-4 with 2 RBI
- Daryl Jones, who has been en fuego lately, went hitless in 3 bats w/ 1 walk. Before today’s game, he had a line of .284/.398/.474 in 95 at-bats and was 11 for his last 30 after getting consistent playing time.
- Lance Lynn, the hitter, was 1-2
- Lance Lynn, the pitcher, gave up 3 runs in 6 innings. He gave up 7 H (1 for extra-bases), 3 R, 2 BB, and 4 K. He had a GO:FO ratio of 8:3
- Victor Marte got his 10th save of the year and lowered his ERA to 1.78. In just over 30 innings, the 30-year old closer has 12 walks, and 28 strikeouts, but has also given up 4 HR. He will remain in Memphis until September, unless a rash of injuries occur to the bullpen (which wouldn’t be surprising the way this year has gone).
- Eric Duncan drilled 2 HR and had 5 RBI on the night
- Nick Punto, who began a rehab in Springfield, was 0-3 before being replaced by Jermaine Curtis. Curtis went 2-2 with a solo-HR and 3 RBI
- Ryan Jackson was 1-4 with a solo-HR and walk on the night. The homer was his 5th of the year and 22nd extra-base hit.
- Alex Castellanos and Chris Swauger both went 3-4, but Swauger had the upper hand with a solo shot in the 3rd
- Audry Perez started at catcher and was 2-4 with a 2-run blast. He finished with 3 RBI
- Zack Cox was 1-4
- Steven Hill didn’t want to get in on the fun. He had a hat trick in 5 hitless at-bats
- Shelby Miller continued his domination of minor-league hitters. Miller started his 2nd straight game against Arkansas and gave up 1 run over 6 innings. He gave up 6 hits (2 doubles), walked none, and struck out 3. The only negatives were a wild pitch, a HBP, and a balk. He didn’t dominate with strike outs today, but he came back against the same team twice in a row and still shut them down.
- Xavier Scruggs was the only player to record more than 1 hit and finished 3-4 with a triple and 2 RBI
- Edgar Lara DH’d and was 1-3 with a double and was hit by a pitch
- Robert Stock hit 1-4, as he tries to make a name for himself in the FSL as a hitter. This may be Stock’s last chance to prove that he has a career behind the plate, so I’m sure we’re all rooting for him.
- Adam Melker went 1-2 with a double and 2 walks
- Kevin Siegrist was wild, walking 4 batters, but he gave up just 2 hits over 6 scoreless innings and struck out 5. 9 of his outs recorded in the field were in the air compared to 4 on the ground.
- Francisco Samuel, who is 24-years old this year, made his 2011 debut and it was a wild one. He gave up 4 runs on 3 walks and a single and was only able to record 1 out.
- Roberto Reyes hit 3rd and was 2-4 with a triple, RBI, and walk
- David Medina, Kevin Moscatel, and Cesar Valera all had a solo-HR
- Jeremy Patton was 2-5 with a double and RBI
- Jose Almarante started the game and had a line of 5 IP, 9 H (2 extra-base hits), 3 R (2 earned), 0 BB, and 3 K with a wild pitch
Entries (RSS)
Miller done a great job of avoiding giving up any hard contact in the air with the wind blowing out. We had the debate about the park effects of Hammons Field a week or so back so I looked up the HR’s and after tonight’s game the park is allowing 2.79 HR per game this year in the 33 home dates and has had the same amount of 7+ HR games as its seen zero HR games with 2 each this season.
Pierce — I believe this was Miller’s 4th start in the Texas League, not his 3rd.
I even double checked that before I posted the DFR and saw that it was his 4th but still posted it as his 3rd anyway. Oops! Thanks for catching that.
Samuel’s era is 108 right now, thats somethin you don’t see everyday.
According to the PB Cards twitter feed, Samuel left with an unspecified injury.
wow
How far is Punto from being ready? The Greene/Kozma shuttle is rapidly wearing out its welcome. Did anybody see the game? Was he the victim of bad luck, or is he still not ready for major-league pitching?
Didn’t see the game so I don’t know how Punto looked, but in a recent PD article TLR mentioned that Punto wouldn’t need a long rehab due to his “experience and low maintenance swing”. Not sure if that’s a legit reason, or if it’s just code for “I can’t take this Greene/Kozma garbage for much longer!”
According to TLR, Punto will be back very soon because he has a low maintenance swing. TLR said as soon as Punto’s arm is ready, he’ll be back in the Stl.
Hoping he takes some innings away from Theriot at SS, some ABs away from Greene/Kozma and relegates Schumaker to PH only…
Ideally we’ll see Freese every day at 3B, Theriot/Punto at SS, Descalso/Punto at 2B (I’d use Punto as a kinda double-platoon I think), and mix in the occasional bit of Schumaker, Greene or Craig (when he’s back) as required.
This means Punto cannot hit much, so there is no point in him practicing his swing.
I am really pulling for Samuel. I hope he can get things going in the right direction…sooner than later!
What is the scouting report on Marte? The team needs to DFA Franklin and Tallet because neither is giving anything productive to this team. Actually, quite the opposite. Every time they come in you feel like the game is lost.
If Marte is the best Memphis pitcher, call him up. Certainly has to be better than Franklin’s 8.17 ERA and Tallet’s 7.15 ERA. Call up Marte or Rauschenberger and one of Valdes/Additon/Freeman. Might as well give them a shot.
I’m not a professional scout by any means, but when I saw Marte, my initial impression was “unexceptional but workable.” He had low-to-mid-90s heat and threw the usual breaking junk, mostly serviceable but none of it just jaw-dropping. Command was somewhat iffy, although not flat-out bad. I would expect replacement-level relief work in the majors, nothing better. However, that is clearly better than Franklin is providing. It’s time to stick a fork in him, and has been time for some time.
Valdes definitely didn’t impress me in a similarly short, non-professional look. He might do better as a LOOGY than as a starter, though. The breaking stuff definitely worked, but I’m not sure he throws hard enough to get major-league left-handed hitters out. Maybe he’ll throw harder in the LOOGY role. Again, he’s unlikely to be worse than Tallet, although I also doubt if he’ll be significantly better.
“I’m not sure he throws hard enough to get major-league left-handed hitters out”
He had other-worldy results against lefties last year for the Mets IIRC. I think he had like 20+ Ks vs about 2 walks in an admittedly very small sample size of innings. Coming into this year, I think it was likely he was better than Tallet vs LHB and that’s still the case now. He just can’t pitch to righties, AT ALL, and will get absolutely lit-up by MLB righties. Still, a guy who can get one batter out (a lefty) is better than a guy who can’t get anyone out (Franklin).
FWIW I’d be tempted to keep Tallet on the roster for mop-up work and dump Franklin & Batista, although there’s not much on the farm in terms of relief options.
Real shame Reifer got hurt. I guess I’d call up Valdes and then either see what Cleto’s got for a few weeks (which may hamper his progress, I guess) or just go with one fewer arm in the pen. Salas, Sanchez, Boggs and Motte are all fine from the right side and Valdes/Miller can be used as LOOGYs with Tallet doing any mop-up work.
It’s easy to get fixated on that stellar K/BB ratio (27/3, which does qualify as “stellar”) and overlook the fact that left-handed hitters lit Valdes up like a Christmas tree last year. The AVERAGE left-handed hitter slugged over .600 against him. No wonder they weren’t walking: who wants to draw a walk when loading up and swinging from the heels is very likely to succeed?
All of this is subject to small-sample-size caveats, whether the K/BB rate or the opposing LHB OPS (.991 — ouch). However, combine it with the fact that to me, he simply didn’t look very good, and I have a hard time getting excited about Valdes as a cure for either Talletitis or Franklinism. A cure must be found, to be sure. But look elsewhere.
Franklin and Tallet should go.
Batista has been fine. He knows how to pitch. He does not turn on some fans because he walks guys by pitching around some and he does not strike out a lot. But its hard to imagine Dave Duncan letting go of Batista.
Hamilton is called up:
I think the other thing they are looking at is you would be replacing AP’s bat with a singles hitter with no power if you did that with Jay and they already have to many singles hitters in the line up. That is why Hamilton gets a shot. As far as Jay, I think its getting to the point where you have to consider having him take playing time away from Rasmus
You have to keep in mind one of the reasons Hamilton looked so bad is because he was taking too many 1st and 2nd pitches for strikes in his AB’s and the majority of his AB’s were as a pinch hitter against the other teams closer after he had sat on the bench the whole game. That’s not much of a way to get adjusted to ML pitching and break in to the big leagues.
“As far as Jay, I think its getting to the point where you have to consider having him take playing time away from Rasmus”
Why do you think that? I realise he’s been in a real rut lately but overall he’s had a good season (Rasmus).
If you had to have Jay get playing time in the OF who would you take playing time from out of Holliday, Berkman, and Rasmus? This is leaving the 1B option out of the equation with Berkman.
Wha?? Its really about time that we trade Jay at his peak as part of a package for some Reyes.
No money in the budget for major contracts, especially what Reyes will be looking at, until the Pujols situation is figured out. That won’t happen until the offseason so no Reyes this year.
If you want Reyes, better hope the Cards pass on Pujols or his contract demands go way down.
why leave first base out of the equation with berkman? it’s the most obvious solution. until albert or craig comes back, the obvious conformation is holliday-rasmus-jay in the OF, and berkman at first. and that looks like it’s what the club is going to do.
hamilton doesn’t seem to be more than replacement value at first. fwiw, zips projected a .281/.343/.403 line from jay at the outset of the season, and a .346/.322/.408 line for hamilton. even ignoring the huge defensive and positional difference between a plus-plus RF and an average 1b, the hitting production from hamilton looks to be comparable at best to what jay puts up.
Siegrist has been seamless in his transition to Palm Beach. He’s only given up one ER in his 3 starts, 18 IP. Awesome that he is a lefty as well.
Anyone have a scouting report on Siegrist? I really hope he’s not a lefty version of PJ Walters and actually has a good fastball.
The beauty of bein a lefty is you can throw like PJ Walters and still have a successful ML career; see: Jamie Moyer.
Siegrist leads all of the minors by over half a run in ERA (0.99 to 2nd place 1.54). I’d guess that is about 2 std deviations or more. There is no one close.
a .206 babip and a 0% HR rate will do that. notwithstanding some good batted ball luck, i don’t think siegrist is that interesting a pitcher relative to the rest of the farm.
Carioa Do you like Siegrist yet?
He’s growing on me (as is Additon) but for both there are real translation questions that need to be answered. but I’m a guy who doesn’t right people off when they have yet to fail so I’m hopeful for both.
right = write!
Carioa = Carioca
Yes, Siegrist and Additon are promising.
When I saw Siegrist he was sitting about 90-91 but according to the Quad City coaching staff he is now up to sitting at 94-95. He’s a big guy and I was suprisd when i saw him that he wasn’t throwing harder. He must have tweaked his mechanices because a 4 or 5 mph increase in the mph is a huge thing during hte season.
Do you have a link? I finally found a scouting report on him when he was with Johnson City that listed him at 88-89 mph on his fastball.
But 94-95 is a huge difference. Really hope we can get some verification on that.
Another link would be appreciated but Scout.com lists his fastball at 94-96 mph “according to the Quad Cities club.” Would be interested in the original source but that is something to really, really get excited about.
If Siegrist keeps this up, he might join Miller, Martinez, Adams, and Brown on my current top 5 prospect board.
It’s insider info on Scout.
Yeah, I see that. Unfortunate but I’ll take the hearsay statement. Getting excited about him now!